wrestling / Columns
Please…Don’t Hate 4.13.08: Kevin Nash (TNA Version)
Welcome everyone to the second week of Please…Don’t Hate , the weekly column which takes a look at some of the most hated on and complained about wrestlers, companies, and topics within the wrestling world.
This week’s subject is Kevin Nash…the TNA version. I picked the TNA version of Nash because ever since the man has joined the company the constant complaints have been following him all along the way. We will break down why this is and how to stop the hating! But first…
This is the section I wanted to start where I pick out two reader comments; one being for the chosen topic and the other being against, and give my two cents on them. I want to thank everyone for their great comments last week, ranging from “Great first article” to “You suck”! I appreciate them and definitely encourage any and all comments good and bad.
Last week’s topic was: TNA Wrestling
firebreakerchip (guest) writes:
I am glad somebody said here because TNA is damn entertaining sometimes. I’ll never understand the hate Cage/Angle/Tomko/Styles angle gets. The characters are organic and three-dimensional . Here’s a mind-blowing concept if advanced each week. Progression in storylines and an actual mid-card make TNA great. Not perfect, just a lot of fun.
I totally agree with you on the Cage/Angle/Tomko/Styles angle. Despite many people complaining about it gobbling up TNA’s TV time, this is actually one of the few stories that the company has kept up with on a constant and increasingly changing basis, something that the WWE often has trouble doing. Going from the brutal beat-down of Abyss done by the Christian Coalition, to the Coalition turning on Cage and joining Angle, even to Styles trying to hook up with Karen Angle, it has honestly kept me wanting to tune in to see what happens next. But even with that, I hope that they will wrap it up soon to move on to newer angles and give this one a nice conclusion.
Daz (guest) writes:
here’s the flaw with your logic. if you give a character to a wrestler, you have to use said character in a way that you can attach to and like. tna’s god awful booking makes it hard to do that making it damn hard to care about the character at all.
the things to love about tna are all on the money. but when those things aren’t being used or executed in the right way it’s a missed opportunity and is a negative thing more so than a positive thing. unfortunately tna has executed things the wrong way on more than one occasion. in fact wrong execution is in the majority. sting/daniels is a prime example, they have one match. sting goes over, daniels ends up derailed and worse off than before. sting moves onto another pointless feud. tna’s heart may be in the right place but it’s head most certainly is not.
and who actually hates tna? as far as i’m concerned most people bitch about tna’s product because they care about tna and want to see it succeed. People don’t hate tna the company, they hate the booking behind it. just my opinion.
Good comments. I agree on some of your thoughts about their booking. They have definitely dropped the ball on some potential great angles in the last couple of years. The two that come to my mind are: the Daniels/Sting feud and the Feast or Fired match. I really wanted to see more of Sting/Daniels and they all of sudden dropped it after one match for an unknown reason and the Feast or Fired bout had good potential as a multi-title “Money In The Bank” type angle, but they made it so confusing and drawn out that the end result turned out kind of crappy. BUT my main point was that instead of complaining about the company’s drawbacks all the time, people should talk about the good things they have going on. They’re not a perfect company by any means, but are a hell of a better alternative to the regular goings of the WWE. People may say that they’re bitching about the company because they want it to do better, but in the end if one bitches about anything for too long more than they’re giving them props, their bitching becomes hating and that I believe needs to slow down.
Now onto this week’s target of choice: Big Kev.
-The man is way too old and too injured to wrestle
-Single handedly killed the X-Division
-Uses backstage politics to headline matches and buries talent in the process
-Too big of an ego to help put anyone over, way too cocky in and out of ring
Before I start my reasoning, I would like to state three things that I think we can all agree upon about Kevin Nash: 1) The man is getting up there in age to be actively wrestling, 2) He has had, without a shadow of a doubt, the WORST luck in being out taken due to injuries in the last few years, and 3) Nash has always had a past reputation for being a cocky bastard in and out of the ring. So with these items out in the open, we should ask ourselves: Has Kevin Nash really been such a burden to TNA with his stay so far? My answer is no.
When he first came on board in 2004, I was kind of excited that they brought him in after his somewhat lackluster run in the WWE and was looking forward to what angle he was going to be involved in. He was awesome as Diesel back in the good ol’ days and was the epiphany of cool in the original NWO, so I was looking to see some of that in TNA. He first came into the fold with another version of the Outsiders (the Kings of Wrestling) with his old partner Scott Hall and Jeff Jarrett, then he turned around and fought Jarrett for the title, got injured shortly afterwards, came back to challenge Jarrett again, got put on the bench once AGAIN after being rushed to hospital before the match occurred, came back to “destroy” the X-Division with his fight against Chris Sabin, got injured one last time for good measure, came back to start a good long series with various members of the X-Division, and is now chilling out with the likes of Christian Cage and Samoa Joe. So if you were a very well-known wrestler who, I’m sure had a good amount of money saved up from their heyday and is aware that their days as an active wrestler are soon approaching an end, why would you want to constantly come back to a wrestling organization that you don’t have any true alliances to? I believe it’s for the love of the sport and the desire to help a company out.
People may say that all Nash has done was take the spotlight away from the younger talent and cause trouble, but I honestly don’t think that he would keep coming back to TNA over and over again with the bad luck he has had in such a short time just to try and bring it down. Everyone should read the pretty good and insightful interview he did with the Canadian wrestling site, Slam Wrestling back in 2006 (click here to read), right before his match with Chris Sabin at the Slammiversity PPV. In the chat, he talks about his time in TNA so far, how he wants the company to succeed, and how he wants to assist the younger talent with developing their characters. Some critics may of course say that the man is full of crap, but his comments seemed very genuine and it’s very doubtful that he would just say these things for no reason.
On top of his willingness to help out the company he is actually a very good asset in wanting to do so. He first is a well-known established name with being a multiple World Champion in both WWE and WCW and having a very significant run in the wrestling industry (NWO start-up, his matches as Diesel). So with having Nash mix it up with the new, upcoming TNA wrestlers on the roster it brings some uniqueness and further creditability to the ring with the old facing the new. People who don’t know about TNA may watch an episode of Impact not recognizing a great talent like A.J. Styles but will know Nash from the past and would then look forward to seeing the two fight it out in the ring.
Second of all, the man has a knack for creating some of the funniest skits on TNA thus far and also for helping out those in the X-Division with developing their characters. With his Paparazzi Production skits and Chris Sabin feud, he’s helped them become more than just the stereotypical “high-flyers”. Now with that being said and before the flurry of comments come my way just for that sole sentence, let me say that he alone shouldn’t be the one to blame for the “death” of the division; bad booking moves (made by several people I’m assuming) were the cause. And even with the sometimes stupid storylines that the X-Division has been stuck with they still always managed to put on great bouts. So not to fully justify some of the mistakes that were made with the handling of these developments, the character build with them still needed to be done or otherwise it would be the same spot-fest night after night until people ultimately got bored with it. Nash shouldn’t be blamed or hated on for “burying” them when all he was doing was trying to help.
Funniest Segments in TNA
If you can honestly tell me to my face that you haven’t found ANY of Nash’s skits in TNA the least bit funny then I just don’t know what to tell you.
(Nash vs. Lucha Libre)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH1F047qWQo
(PCS Drug Testing Skit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PyE7Nb83Fw
Assistance to Younger Talent
Despite the strong criticisms Nash has been a great assistance to the X-Division. His feud with Chris Sabin was a good attempt to bring the division in with the heavyweights (later done a bit better with Team 3D) and he brought in Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, and Alex Shelly with the hilarious Paparazzi Productions skits that ran for months. And you have to admit when have you EVER seen X-Division wrestlers get this much TV time without having to break their necks in the process? Silly or not, Nash helped them out with this.
(Kevin Nash Wrestling Clinic w/ Dutt & Lethal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5QUq5UPyfw
(Sabin/X-Division Feud)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m__PmjuGzc
Acting as a Well-Established Name
Seeing the former “Big Daddy Cool” in action against the fresh faces of TNA is definitely a unique sight to see. His verbal battles with Samoa Joe and his recent in-ring bout with A.J. Styles have been cool to watch. Heck, I even marked out a little bit when Scott Hall came back a few months ago for an Outsiders reunion, despite him sadly and expectantly flaking out at the last second.
(Nash Telling Samoa Joe How It Is…With A Baseball Bat!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joPsPTyDZPg
(Nash vs. A.J. Styles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhmFU52Ceec
(The Outsiders’ Return)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s9bqy0NS2s&feature=related
So, on this eve of the 2008 edition of Lockdown, if you happen to see Big Kev in his Lethal Lockdown cage match, just know that despite him being old and despite the growing possibility that he (God forbid) may get injured AGAIN, you shouldn’t hate on the man for trying to help a company out. Other wrestlers in his position would have walked away a long time ago, but he remains there because he wants to help out and because he truly believes in a company that’s attempting to be different than the rest.
